Dominant negative effect of dupα7 on α7 receptor activity Function of Partially Duplicated Human α7 Nicotinic Receptor Subunit CHRFAM7A Gene. POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CHOLINERGIC ANTI-INFLAMMATORY RESPONSE*

The neuronal α7 nicotinic receptor subunit gene (CHRNA7) is partially duplicated in human genome forming a hybrid gene (CHRFAM7A) with the novel FAM7A gene. The hybrid gene transcript, dupα7, has been identified in brain, immune cells and the HL-60 cell line, although its translation and function are still unknown. In this paper dupα7 cDNA has been cloned and expressed in GH4C1 cells and Xenopus oocytes to study the pattern and functional role of the expressed protein. Our results reveal that dupα7 transcript was natively translated in HL-60 cells and heterologously expressed in GH4C1 cells and oocytes. Injection of dupα